RUN AND GIGGLE

Several months ago, I was walking alongside of a two-year-old and he started yelling, “NO…don’t push!” I looked around and didn’t see anything, but then it dawned on me. He was yelling at the wind. The wind was gusty and blowing hard. Eventually he stopped, turned into that wind with a determined stare and stomped his foot. He was letting that ol’ wind know that he did NOT have to go where it was blowing. He was in control.

The Spirit of the living Christ comes in a strong wind. Remember the story of Pentecost (which we will celebrate in May) where the wind of His Spirit whistles, and bursts, and fills the house of the disciples. (Acts 2:2). The gift of the Spirit comes to us that way so that we may know that the living Christ is here with us and is powerfully on the move.

The wind of that Spirit is still blowing all around us; the stream of the Spirit may indeed feel a bit pushy! Even more, the wind of the Spirit “blows wherever it pleases and we can’t always tell where it comes from or where it is going.” (John 3:8) The power of a strong wind ruffles our hair and clothes. It pushes so that our feet might shuffle along towards the place where the wind is going. That wind is trying to move us to a place that may yet be out of sight, different than we would have chosen or could imagine.  All of that God-wind can easily have us feeling a bit out of control because we know that moving often involves changing. Moving involves new places and new ways of being.

The wind of that Spirit is blowing in this family of faith we call church. Have you heard the whistling and felt His move? Perhaps you feel the wind blowing in your household or in your work. It may not feel like it quite yet, but the wind of the Spirit only blows us toward life. It blows so that we might get caught up in the powerful welcoming, giving, loving ways of Christ. It is trying to blow us to where Christ would have us be. I wonder how many of us are stomping our feet and staring down the wind to try and stay in control?

The other day was another really gusty day. I noticed the two-year-old was suddenly not by my side. I looked up to find him with his arms outstretched and his coat flapping in the wind. He had let that ol’ wind push him. I was staring at his back as it carried him into a run while he tipped his head back and giggled.

The Spirit may be trying to carry us into new places; they are places we do not yet know. But the Spirit always carries us toward life. So feel free to tip your head back, run and giggle.

Christ’s love and mine,

Jen

ARE WE READY TO BE POST-EASTER PEOPLE?

Last Sunday before the service began, I was standing next to one of our college students in attendance as we both looked out at the gathering congregation. Folks were slowly trickling in, almost shuffling their feet it seemed. Even the children seemed a bit lethargic - maybe a full week of Easter candy sugar overload had finally caught up with them. The crowd was smaller in size, too, than the previous standing-room-only Easter service. This was clearly an “I need another cup of coffee” kind of morning. Breaking the silence, the college student said rather matter-of-factly, “Ahhh, the post-Easter hangover!” It took me just a moment to put this in context before I nodded my head slowly and simply responded, “Indeed.” I would not have thought to put it that way, but he captured exactly what we were all feeling.

You see, for me, Easter has always been the highlight of the year. The story of Jesus’ death and resurrection has captivated me since I was a small boy. I heard the story so powerfully at Camp Indi-Co-So where for the first time I felt a living and personal connection with Christ as my savior. The build-up of Lent, the energy of the Easter Sunday crowd, the pageantry of the service, and the pure beauty and inspiration of the story has always made Easter an emotional highpoint for me. Then, there’s Easter brunch, sometimes extended family in town, and of course Easter egg hunts and Easter candy. But, then….what’s next? What is post-Easter all about, and how can it not be a letdown?

In a post-game interview after one of IU’s NCAA tournament wins this year, Coach Crean said something to the effect of “God gives us the talent, skill and opportunity, but it’s up to us to do the hard work.” That stuck with me, and I’ve thought about what he said ever since. I think Easter is God giving us endless opportunity through His promise of unconditional love. But, I think post-Easter is when it’s up to us to do the hard work of fulfilling that incredible promise and finding transformation in our lives through Him and through Jesus Christ. That’s not a hangover, but the most rewarding and exciting challenge we could ever accept.

Are we ready for the hard work of being post-Easter people?

This Sunday we look at what 1^st John 3:1-7 has to say about God’s amazing promise of lifelong transformation.  “Change Order” is the title of the message.


-Jonathan D. Purvis

WHAT KIND OF A CHURCH IS THIS?

The preacher had a habit of working on his sermon outline in a TGIF/ Applebees kind of place.  This particular day he was wearing a short-sleeve cotton golf shirt with the church’s logo and name over the breast pocket.

The waitress was a young woman.  Who had multiple piercings and tattoos.

“What are you working on?  Are you a professor at the university?” she asked the pastor.  “No,” he said, “I am one of the preachers at the United Methodist Church down the road just off the interstate.”

The waitress didn’t say much to her customer after that.  She worked her tables.

Then, she came back to the table where the pastor was sitting by himself.  The waitress asked if the preacher had some time to talk.  He said, “Sure.”

She told him about growing up in the church.  She told him about some choices she made.  She talked about a chapter in her life that had been dominated by drugs.  About some poor choices in relationships.  She talked about getting pregnant. The father leaving her before the baby ever arrived.  Then, she talked about being angry at God for the mess of her life.  She talked about a period where she became a witch.  She read books about magic and black arts and was into that life.

“There is something missing,” the young woman told the man at the table.  “I realize that what I believe and what I am involved in is leading nowhere good.  The longer I am involved with this, the more I can feel something inside me dying.  There is a hunger in me to believe something better about life.  I want to know who God really is, but I don’t know where to start.”

So they talked for a bit.  The pastor talked about a God who loved her and wanted her life to be good and full.  The pastor talked about a God who would never walk away from her  -in contrast to the men in her life who had used her and abandoned her.  He invited her to try a small group, or worship, or the young mother’s group.

The young woman, with tattoos up and down her arms, quietly asked, “What kind of a church is your church?  Would your church want someone like me around?”
How would you answer that question?  If someone asked you what kind of church First Church/ The Open Door is, what would you say?  Would you be able to tell them this community is real and genuine?  Would you be able to tell them we are a community where all kinds of people are welcome?  Would you say this is a place where you don’t have to pretend to have it all together?

This Sunday we begin a new series of messages.  This weekend we look at what 1^st John 1-2 have to say about being set free by God’s love.  “No Pretending Necessary” is the title of the message.

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark

CHANGING FILM AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS

We were in Jerusalem.  It had been a long day.  Late in the afternoon our group was visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Considered one of the holiest of all Christian sites in the Holy Land, the church is in the Old City.

It isn’t all that attractive on the outside or in.  The walls are stained with the soot of thousands of candles burned in the building since its construction in 326 of the Common Era.  The church is built over a geographical formation that resembles a skull.  Tradition says the church is built on the place where Jesus was crucified.  It is also believed that the area of the church includes the garden tomb where the body of Jesus would have been placed.

Our guide walked us up to a well-lit altar.  Beneath the altar there was an outcrop of rock, and in the rock there was an opening large enough and deep enough to hold the vertical of a Roman cross.  The guide explained that this was likely the place where the vertical beam of the cross on which Christ was crucified was placed.
I was tired.  I was warm.  I shrugged.  I sat down there and changed the film in my camera.  I thought to myself, “Yeah, right.  Probably just another hole in a piece of rock that someone says was the place of the crucifixion.  Another nice story to tell tourists…”

After changing the film I took some pictures and then headed outside.  Got on the bus.  We returned to our hotel.  After supper I attended a lecture given by one of the foremost archeologists in the world.  He referred to the hole in the rock beneath the altar in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and said, “We believe that was in fact the place where the cross of Christ rested…was made secure…the vertical beam was wedged into that hole…during the crucifixion.”

I sagged.  I wanted to go back.  I had been there, in the place where Jesus had bled and died because of his love for all creation, and I had shrugged!  I had been on holy ground, and I had been more concerned about changing the film in my camera.

When John 19:23 tells us the soldiers who had crucified Jesus were arguing over which one of them would get his articles of clothing, I have always found it hard to believe that they could have done something so mundane, so ordinary, in the presence of a moment so intensely holy.  Whether Jesus was the Son of God or “just” one more dying political prisoner, how do men argue over articles of clothing when a man is fighting for each breath just above them?

I’ve been thinking of that moment in Jerusalem this week.  I’ve been thinking about the way I shrugged off the holy and kept doing the ordinary stuff of life.

Jesus speaks truth to us whether or not we understand.  Jesus loves us whether or not we respond.  Jesus dies for a world that would rather argue over clothing or change film than come to grips with this fierce, determined, unyielding, death – shattering grace.

“Living God, forgive us for changing film at the foot of the cross.  Forgive us for being so preoccupied with our stuff, our agenda, that we miss the holy work you do among us in Jesus.  Thank you for being a Savior who loves those who notice and those whose eyes are closed to the miracle.  Amen.”

Welcome to the adventure!

In Christ and for Christ,

Mark